Asian stock trading muffled by Wall Street fade | General Holding LLC

Asian stock trading muffled by Wall Street fade | General Holding LLC

BANGKOK (AP) — Subdued trading reigned in Asian stocks Wednesday after the S&P 500′s failure to punch through its recent record high for a second day instilled caution into markets.

There was little economic or corporate news for regional markets to trade on, which put Wall Street’s lack of momentum into focus.

For two straight days the S&P 500 has approached its record closing high of 1,848.38 set Jan. 15 but faded on both occasions. That has boosted the confidence of “bears,” investors who are betting that markets will enter a correction because they think current valuations aren’t justified.

“The prospect of a pullback seems to be growing,” said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG in Melbourne, Australia.

“Given we are coming to the tail end of earnings season, the question is what will be the catalyst for which the bulls will cling to from here?”

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average was down 0.4 percent at 14,998.05 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was little changed at 22,315.24.

Seoul’s Kospi added 0.4 percent to 1,972.44 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.1 percent to 5,347. Markets in Southeast Asia were mostly lower.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 27.48 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,179.66 on Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 2.49 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,845.12 and the Nasdaq composite fell 5.38 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,287.59.

Benchmark U.S. crude for April delivery was down 15 cents at $101.68 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currencies, the euro was unchanged at $1.3740 late Tuesday. The dollar rose to 102.27 yen from 102.24 yen.

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Asian stock trading muffled by Wall Street fade | General Holding LLC

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